1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a device for driving a display panel such as a plasma display panel (PDP), a plasma addressed liquid crystal (PALC), a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a field emission display (FED).
The display panel is widely used as a device that can substitute for a CRT in various fields. For example, a PDP is available in the market as a flat type television set having a wide screen above 40 inches. One of the challenges for making the wide screen with high definition is to control capacitance between electrodes.
2. Description of the prior art
The display panel has an electrode matrix including scan electrodes for row selection and data electrodes for column selection. On each cross point of the scan electrodes and the data electrodes, a single display portion having a display element is disposed. The display element of a PDP and a PALC is a discharging cell. An LCD has a liquid crystal cell as the display element and the FED has a field emitter as the display element. A surface discharge type PDP that is available in the market has two electrodes for each row. However, only one of the two electrodes is used for row selection. Therefore, the electrode arrangement of the surface discharge type PDP is regarded as a single matrix similar to the others from the viewpoint of selecting the display element.
Contents of the display is decided by the selective addressing (i.e., addressing of row). An addressing period of one frame is divided into row selection periods of the number same as the number of rows of the screen. Each scan electrode is biased to a predetermined potential in one of the row selection periods so as to be active. In synchronization with this row selection, display data for the row is output from all data electrodes. In other words, potentials of data electrodes are controlled simultaneously in accordance with the display data. The most typical method for controlling the potentials of the data electrodes is to dispose a switching device between each output terminal of plural power sources having different potentials and the data electrode, and to control the switching device by a pulse signal synchronizing with the row selection so as to connect or disconnect the output terminal of the power source and the data electrode.
A driving method in which the addressing and sustaining required for an AC type PDP are separated on the time axis is widely used for the AC type PDP. The addressing is performed for forming charge distribution corresponding to the display data, and then discharge in gas is generated utilizing wall electric charge by the number of times corresponding to intensity. In the sustaining period, a voltage pulse is applied to a pair of two electrodes alternately, so that the relative potential between the electrodes changes periodically. Along with this change of the relative potential, a capacitance between the electrodes (hereinafter, referred to as an interelectrode capacitance) is charged and discharged repeatedly. The charging and discharging of the interelectrode capacitance are waste of electric power that cannot contribute to light emission. In order to reduce the power loss, the PDP has a power recycling circuit including a capacitor and an inductor having predetermined capacitance and inductance. The charge of the interelectrode capacitance is discharged into the capacitor for recycling, and the charge of the capacitor is retrieved to charge the interelectrode capacitance for reusing repeatedly. The inductor is disposed between the capacitor and the interelectrode capacitance so as to form a resonance circuit that speeds up the movement of the charge and enlarges an amplitude and a reuse ratio of the charge (i.e., a power recycling ratio).
In the above-mentioned sustaining period, a constant pattern of voltage pulse is applied to the plural electrodes wothout depending on the display data. Therefore, only one power recycling circuit is necessary for the electrodes. However, in the case of addressing, the potential of each data electrode depends on the display data, and the relative potential between the neighboring data electrodes is not constant. Therefore, in order to reduce the power consumption due to the interelectrode capacitance in the addressing, each data electrode requires one power recycling circuit. Since the capacitor and the inductor having a sufficient capacitance or inductance are difficult to be packed into an IC chip, the driving device becomes large size, and the number of man-hours required for manufacturing becomes a large. In addition, in order to avoid floating of a logic circuit for generating switching signals, isolation is needed between the logic circuit and the power recycling circuit, resulting in a complicated and expensive circuit configuration. For this reason, the conventional display panel available in the market does not recycle the power for addressing.
High definition and wide screen are being promoted for display panels, so that the number of data electrode and driving frequency is increasing. Therefore, power consumption of the. interelectrode capacitance is being a big problem. Especially, for PDPs, the power consumption in the addressing period is coming close to that in the sustaining period, so the power recycling will be necessary for the addressing too. If trying to reduce the power consumption without the power recycling, the number of displayed colors or the intensity should be restricted, which affects the display quality.
The object of the present invention is to reduce the power consumption due to the interelectrode capacitance in the addressing period, and decrease the number of components in the driving circuit.
In the present invention, for each of plural data electrodes, a discharging path to a power recycling circuit and a charging path from the power recycling circuit are disposed, and these paths are used separately in accordance with display data. In addition, if the q-th data and the (q+1)th data are the same in the display data given to each data electrode sequentially in synchronization with row selection of addressing, both the discharging path and the charging path are opened so as to keep the electrode potential.
Basically, providing four switches to each data electrode enables controlling connection between the data electrode and the power supply line or the ground line, and controlling connection with the power recycling circuit, so that plural data electrodes can share one power recycling circuit.
Furthermore, each data electrode can have two switches for controlling connection with the power recycling circuit, so that data electrode can share the switch for controlling connection with the power supply line or the ground line. In this configuration, electric power can be recycled without depending on the combination of display data by providing diodes adequately so that currents between data electrodes can be prevented. However, it is not always necessary to prevent the current between data electrodes. Namely, if the number of objects to be charged and the number of objects to be discharged are not the same in plural data electrodes that share one power recycling circuit, a potential difference is generated between the common connection node of the plural data electrodes and the recycling capacitor, so that charging current or discharging current will appear. Therefore, recycling efficiency is not zero. Only when the number of objects to be charged and the number of objects to be discharged are the same coincidentally, the potential of the common connection node becomes substantially the middle potential between the power source potential and the ground potential due to the current between data electrodes, and neither the charging current or the discharging current appears.
The switches for the data electrodes are packed into an IC chip. Thus, the driving circuit of the display panel having plural data electrodes can be realized in a small size. The switches that plural data electrodes share also can be packed into the IC chip. However, if the packing is difficult because of restriction of current capacity, they can be made up of discrete components.
In the first aspect of the present invention, the method for driving a display panel by controlling potential for addressing of electrodes arranged within a screen, includes steps of providing a first to a fourth switches for each of plural data electrodes controlled by display data, using the first switch for making or breaking a current path from a bias potential line to a data electrode corresponding to the first switch, using the second switch for making or breaking a first resonance current path from a power recycling capacitor to a data electrode corresponding to the second switch, using the third switch for making or breaking a second resonance current path from a data electrode corresponding to the third switch to the capacitor, and using the fourth switch for making or breaking a current path from a data electrode corresponding to the fourth switch to a ground potential line.
In the second aspect of the present invention, the driving method further includes the steps of connecting all of the first switches to the bias potential line via a bias controlling switch, connecting all of the fourth switches to the ground potential line via a ground controlling switch, and keeping both the bias controlling switch and the ground controlling switch- in the open state until a predetermined period passes after the time point when at least one of the second switches or at least one of the third switches changes from the open state to the close state.
In the third aspect of the present invention, the bias controlling switch and the ground controlling switch are controlled at the same timing.
In the fourth aspect of the present invention, the driving method further includes the steps of connecting all of the second switches to the capacitor via a first auxiliary switch, connecting all of the third switches to the capacitor via a second auxiliary switch, controlling the first auxiliary switch so as to start supplying current from the capacitor to the plural data electrodes simultaneously, and controlling the second auxiliary switch so as to start supplying current to the capacitor from the plural data electrodes simultaneously.
In the fifth aspect of the present invention, the first auxiliary switch and the second auxiliary switch are controlled at the same timing.
In the sixth aspect of the present invention, the device for driving a display panel by controlling potential for addressing of electrodes arranged within a screen includes a first to a fourth switches for each of plural data electrodes controlled by display data. The first switch is used for making or breaking a current path from a bias potential line to a data electrode corresponding to the first switch. The second switch being used for making or breaking a first resonance current path from a power recycling capacitor to a data electrode corresponding to the second switch. The third switch being used for making or breaking a second resonance current path from a data electrode corresponding to the third switch to the capacitor. The fourth switch being used for making or breaking a current path from a data electrode corresponding to the fourth switch to a ground potential line.
In the seventh aspect of the present invention for the driving device, the first resonance current path includes a first inductance element for resonance with the capacitance within the screen, and the second resonance current path includes a second inductance element for resonance with the capacitance.
In the eighth aspect of the present invention, the method for driving a display panel by controlling potential for addressing of electrodes arranged within a screen, includes the steps of providing first and second switches for each of plural data electrodes controlled by display data, connecting all of the first switches to the bias potential line via a bias controlling switch, connecting all of the second switches to the ground potential line via a ground controlling switch, using the bias controlling switch for making or breaking a current path from a bias potential line to the plural data electrodes, using the first switch for making or breaking a first resonance current path from a power recycling capacitor to a data electrode corresponding to the first switch, using the second switch for making or breaking a second resonance current path from a data electrode corresponding to the first switch to the capacitor, and using the ground controlling switch for making or breaking a current path from the plural data electrodes to the ground potential line.
In the ninth aspect of the present invention, the driving method further includes the steps of providing diodes for all of the first switches so as to prevent a current from each of the first switches to the other and providing diodes for all of the second switches so as to prevent a current from each of the second switches to the other.
In the tenth aspect of the present invention for the driving method, the bias controlling switch and the ground controlling switch are controlled at the same timing.
In the eleventh aspect of the present invention, the driving method further includes the steps of connecting all of the first switches to the capacitor via a first auxiliary switch, connecting all of the second switches to the capacitor via a second auxiliary switch, controlling the first auxiliary switch so as to start supplying current from the capacitor to the plural data electrodes simultaneously, and controlling the second auxiliary switch so as to start supplying current to the capacitor from the plural data electrodes simultaneously.
In the twelfth aspect of the present invention for the driving method, the first auxiliary switch and the second auxiliary switch are controlled at the same timing.
In the thirteenth aspect of the present invention, the device for driving a display panel by controlling potential for addressing of electrodes arranged within a screen includes first and second switches for each of plural data electrodes controlled by display data. All of the first switches are connected to the bias potential line via a bias controlling switch. All of the second switches are connected to the ground potential line via a ground controlling switch. The bias controlling switch is used for making or breaking a current path from a bias potential line to the plural data electrodes. The first switch is used for making or breaking a first resonance current path from a power recycling capacitor to a data electrode corresponding to the first switch. The second switch is used for making or breaking a second resonance current path from a data electrode corresponding to the first switch to the capacitor. The ground controlling switch is used for making or breaking a current path from the plural data electrodes to the ground potential line.
In the fourteenth aspect of the present invention, the driving device further includes diodes for preventing a current from each of the first switches to the other and diodes for preventing a current from each of the second switches to the other.
In the fifteenth aspect of the present invention for the driving device, the first resonance current path includes a first inductance element for resonance with a capacitance within the screen, and the second resonance current path includes a second inductance element for resonance with the capacitance.
In the sixteenth aspect of the present invention, the integrated circuit device for controlling potentials of m (mxe2x89xa72) data electrodes arranged within a screen of a display panel, includes m output terminals each of which corresponds to each of the m data electrodes, four connecting terminals for connecting to an external power recycling circuit, 4xc3x97m switches for controlling continuity between each of the m output terminals and each of the four connecting terminals and a switch driver circuit for controlling the 4xc3x97m switches.
In the seventeenth aspect of the present invention for the integrated circuit device, the switch driver circuit includes a register that can memorize 4xc3x97m bits of control data, and gives four bits of the control data corresponding to each of the m output terminals to four switches corresponding to the one output terminal one bit by one bit.
In the eighteenth aspect of the present invention for the integrated circuit device, the switch driver circuit includes a signal gate for forcing the two of four switches corresponding to each of them output terminals to be the open state responding to an external control signal.
In the nineteenth aspect of the present invention for the integrated circuit device, the switch driver circuit includes a register that can memorize 2xc3x97m bits of control data, and generates four bits of data in accordance with two bits corresponding to each of the m output terminals so as to give the data to four switches corresponding to the one output terminal one bit by one bit.
In the twentieth aspect of the present invention for the integrated circuit device, the switch driver circuit includes a register that can memorize m bits of control data, gives one bit of the control data corresponding to each of the m output terminals to two of four switches corresponding to the one output terminal, and gives the inverted bit of the one bit to the other two of four switches.
In the twenty-first aspect of the present invention, the integrated circuit device for controlling potentials of m (mxe2x89xa72) data electrodes arranged within a screen of a display panel, includes m output terminals each of which corresponds to each of the m data electrodes, two connecting terminals for connecting to an external power recycling circuit, 2xc3x97m switches for controlling continuity between each of them output terminals and each of the two connecting terminals and a switch driver circuit for controlling the 2xc3x97m switches.
In the twenty-second aspect of the present invention for the integrated circuit device, the switch driver circuit includes a register that can memorize 2xc3x97m bits of control data, and gives two bits of the control data corresponding to each of the m output terminals to two switches corresponding to the one output terminal one bit by one bit.
In the twenty-third aspect of the present invention for the integrated circuit device, the switch driver circuit includes a register that can memorize m bits of control data, gives one bit of the control data corresponding to each of the m output terminals to one of two switches corresponding to the one output terminal, and gives the inverted bit of the one bit to the other one of two switches.
In the twenty-fourth aspect of the present invention, the display device includes a display panel including M (2xe2x89xa6Mxe2x89xa6mxc3x97k, m is an integer greater than one and k is an integer greater than zero) data electrodes and N (2xe2x89xa6N) scan electrodes arranged within a screen, and a driving device for controlling potentials of the data electrodes and the scan electrodes for selective addressing. The driving device including an address driver circuit made up by k integral circuit devices and i (1xe2x89xa6ixe2x89xa6k) power recycling circuits. The power recycling circuit includes first and second inductance elements for resonance with the capacitance within the screen.